14 replies to this topic

[WBSKI]

Hi guys, Im going to be going to Edmonton and Calgary this summer so I wanted to know where the ski hills are so i can photo the lifts, I found most of them but i know i might be missing a few. If you know of others, could you tell me the nearest town and location from it. Thanks everyone!
*indicates areas i might visit.
I have:
Sunridge*
Edmonton Ski Club*
Snow Valley*
Canyon*
Drumheller Valley
Kinosoo Ridge
Vista Ridge
Misery Mountain
Whispering Pines
Nitehawk
Can Oly Park*
Wintergreen*
Hidden Valley
Pass Powderkeg*
Castle Mountain*
Nakiska*
Fortress*
Norquay
Sunshine
Lake Louise
Marmot Basin*

Added:
Medicine Lodge*
Woodlea*
Tawatinaw Valley
Whitemud*
Rabbit Hill*
Silver Summit*
Pegion Mtn*
Devon*
Shaganappi*
Whistler's*

This post has been edited by WBSKI: 04 May 2006 - 04:03 PM

[edmontonguy]

For areas within the City of Edmonton, Sunridge, Snow valley and the Edmonton Ski club and Rabbit hill are all within 40 minutes of Downtown:

Edmonton Ski Club:
Across the rivervalley from downtown, under Connor's hill. The two platter pull and one t-bar lift have their upper terminals visable from Connor's Road. Access to the lower terminals is found through the community of Riverdale.

Sunridge:
Accessed most easily from the Yellowhead trail, it's south down 17th street about a kilometer, the t-bars are all visable as you cross the river.

Snowvalley:
located adjacent to the Whitemud freeway, follow the signage for the ski area/campground as you must exit and loop back underneath the freeway to reach the hill.

Rabbit Hill:
20 minutes southwest of the City, consult the website for directions, the largest of the hills in Edmonton with the most unique lifts.

Marmot Basin:
20 minutes south of Jasper, 700m vertical climb up a narrow meandering road.

Medicine Lodge:
If it is indeed the hill i'm thinking of, it's a fair drive. From the QE2 about 30 mins due west from Lacombe, passing through the town of Bentley. 2-2.5 hours from Edmonton.

Castle Mountain:
Alberta's most southerly Mountain resort. Around 3 hours south of Calgary through Pincher Creek, near the Crowsnest pass.

[Fharvenugen]

Just to comment on Wintergreen, as far as a ski area goes, it has been closed for skiing - it is now strictly a golf course. While the lodge is still there (used as a clubhouse for the golf course), and the runs are still visible, from what I've heard the lifts have all been pulled out.

If you do happen to make it to Wintergreen, I'd love to see pictures of what's left of the old ski hill portion of the place.

If you are interested in "abandoned" ski hills, and you happen to be driving from Calgary out to Banff, pull into the gas station at Dead Man's Flats (just as you drive into the rockies on the trans canada), turn around (looking across the highway) and have a look at the hill. You can still see the old runs cut in the hill from a hill formerly known as "Pegion Mountain". It went through a few lives - was apparently built in the 60's and went bankrupt in the mid 70's... then was open for a few years in the early 80's and bankrupt again. There are time-share condos at the base now, apparently the old lodge was rennovated for use with the time-share community, and the runs are still visible. But otherwise that's all that is left of that old hill.

This post has been edited by Fharvenugen: 10 April 2006 - 01:27 PM

[edmontonguy]

In terms of lost ski hills, if you find yourself travelling down the Yellow head highway from Jasper to Edmonton, just north of the Interchange where Highway 16 A splits off as the City Center route for Edmonton, Lake Eden ski area is visable. All original lifts remain though are not in running order.

See this topic for more info about Lake Eden and lost hills in the Edmonton Area.

[WBSKI]

Will stop at both, looks to me like Pigeon could be expanded alot if they wanted.

Sweet:http://www.nelsap.org/ab/pigeon.html

This post has been edited by WBSKI: 10 April 2006 - 03:27 PM

[edmontonguy]

Pigeon is located in a rather horrible snow location. Their exposure is primarily West facing meaning they would have harsh sun on the runs during the heat of the day. As well Without snowmaking, the Valley where the hill is located typically has a fairly limited snow base, so it's unlikely even if it had survived that the finacial costs would have allowed it to stay open, especially with Nakiska, Fortress, Norquay and Sunshine all within a half hour. For the last few years Canmore nordic Center has struggled to even establish a base, i doub't that they would have had a very good season, even if they were still open.

Perhaps with the right marketing and development a mountain similar to Echo mountain could be developed, there is a demand in the Banff Area as most of the hills have sizeably small terrain parks when compared to resorts of similar size in america. With a growing population base in Canmore and it's proximity to Calgary, perhaps this could be viable.

This post has been edited by edmontonguy: 10 April 2006 - 03:32 PM

[Fharvenugen]

Its true that *if* pigeon mountain had been in a different location - facing a different direction and preferably at a higher altitude, then it could perhaps have been expanded to be pretty big, and might still be in operation. But due to its location, it just doesn't maintain any snow base on the hill. While I never saw the place when it was open for skiing, in all the times I've driven from Calgary to Banff I've never seen that hill to have any real amount of snow on it. The only way to have skiing there would be to have excessive amounts of snow making.

I think this also is partly what caused Wintergreen (aka Lyon Mountain) to close. Avoiding looking at any decisions that RCR may have made while operating the place for skiing and just strictly looking at the snow situation, while it didn't suffer the same type of angle to the sun as pigeon causing all the snow to melt, one difficulty with Wintergreen is that it never seemed to get enough natural snow for any type of natural base - it all had to be man-made. During its final season of operation (2002-2003) if my memory serves, it didn't even get opened until sometime in February (it was a really bad year for snow) and was only open for about a month and a half (ended the season sometime in March), with one lift (the moose meadow t-bar) in operation. And at the end of that season RCR pulled the plug on skiing at Wintergreen.

While I never skiied the place during its final years, I do recall skiing at Lyon Mountain (and then Wintergreen after it was re-named when RCR bought it) many times during the late 80's and up to about '94. It was a fun little hill, good for a half day or an evening (it had night skiing), also a great little place to learn to ski. It was also big with ski-school programmes, I can even recall times when there were lengthy (10 minute - which was long for that place) lift lines. It had 5 lifts when I skiied it - a centre-pole double chair which had towers built to allow it to be a double-double, although only one side of that lift had ever been installed (I think it was a Doppelmayr), 2 t-bars (one was a Dopp, the other I think was a Mueller), a fixed grip Quad (Mueller), and a rope tow. At some point they also added a magic carpet during the hill's final years.

[edmontonguy]

I think as is the case with a great lot of hills in Alberta, most which are still in operation are located close to a major population center or have enough snow to operate without extensive snow making. Hills like Tawatinaw are still in operation due to the fact that they receive a decent base each year, if they made snow i think the operating budget wouldn't justify having the ski hill open. For hills in cities or near, the large draw of people provides a consisent income for the hill, following the "build it and they will come mentality" as soon as theses hills have a base of snow, skier will flock there. For example Rabbit hill had it's best first half of the season this year yet for most of that period the entire base was manmade. Wintergreen had the Dissadvantage of being inbetween the mountains and Calgary. COP provides an excellent hill within the city, while skiers will usually drive the extra few Kilometers to Nakiska if they want Mountain skiing.

[WBSKI]

Correction for Long Lake: 7 miles NORTH on SR831

Anyways, thanks for the additional ski hills, ive only been able to find Long Lake and Devon so far, Silver Summit proves a challenge to find and Misty Ridge i havent looked for much yet, definitely interested in seeing those pix.

This post has been edited by WBSKI: 14 April 2006 - 02:50 PM

[dromo_mania]

Annnnd if you really want to see LONG lost ski areas .. when you finish seeing Marlin or Mike @ Snow Valley in South Edmonton: drive along the Whitemud Freeway to the old 'Whitemud Ski Area'. You can access it off of old Keiler Road (adjacent to the Whitemud Equine centre) and drive south along little Whitemud Creek. This is not the access road to Fort Edmonton, but its the road on the OTHER side of the Fort Edmonton/ Nature centre access..

The Whitemud ski area was operated briefly during the late 60's and then shut down in the early 70's . There was 2 rope tows and a very short T bar that went up along the (North West facing ) hill. I remember an old log building that the city used after the ski slope closed down - only to be burned down by vandals in the early 80's

The lift components are long gone but you can clearly see the park area and hill where many people came to try it out. I remember going to day camp and seeing the old machinery and wondering what it was all about..

Check the City of Edmonton website and search "whitemud park' or something similiar for directions..

[WBSKI]

thanks! added to list, keillor road is the correct spelling

[Doug]

Another lost area is Shaganappi in Calgary. It was located on the slope below the Shaganappi Golf course and close in the early 80's. I believe it only had a few rope tows, and no snowmaking.

[WBSKI]

So far visited! (Im in Calgary right now)

Sunridge (Photos of all lifts from above)
Edmonton Ski Club (All intact lifts) (Had to get special entrance permission due to the Folk Fest)
Snow Valley (All lifts covered)
Canyon (Had to phone in advance for permission) (All lifts covered)
Marmot Basin (Hiked to the summit which has two lifts servicing it)
Medicine Lodge (Base only) (Appears to operate)
Woodlea (Couldnt Find)
Whitemud (Found upper tow foundation)
Rabbit Hill (Had to get managers permission)
Silver Summit (Visited base, had to cycle last 1.5km because of gate)
Devon (Found remains of upper ropetow station)
Whistler's (Visited base and museum in Jasper)
Jasper Tramway

Lots and lots of photos!

[WBSKI]

Heres the scoop on Wintergreen. The lifts on the front have been removed. Two vandalized Liftie Boxes remain at the base. On the back side, the chairlift on the back, (i forget the name) has not been removed! Its wierd... Im betting its because the golfers cant see it so they are going to leave it for a while.

The Fortress Curved Tee is so cool!!
It has 5-6 Bullwheels. 1 at the drive stn at the base. 1 or 2 curve bullwheels and 3 at the farside stn.
The lift has separate liftlines with a double unload/load.

The Castle Huckleberry expansion is looking good! I got a new trail map and got pix of the lift construction. No towers had been raised although the base stn frame was complete. The bullwheels havent been joined together yet (they are still halves)